Cetacean stranding events
Cetacean stranding, also known as beaching, is a phenomenon in which whales and dolphins strand themselves on land, usually on a beach. Beached whales and dolphins often die due to dehydration, collapsing under their own weight, or drowning when high tide covers the blowhole.
2023 Strandings
Cheynes Beach, Western Australia - 25 and 26 July 2023
The 2023 Cheynes Beach whale stranding was a mass stranding of 96 pilot whales that occurred on Cheynes Beach, Western Australia, on 25 and 26 July 2023. It was one of the largest whale strandings in Australian history and resulted in the death of all the stranded whales. On 25 July 2023, the Parks and Wildlife Service of Western Australia (PWS) received reports of pilot whales close to the shoreline of Cheynes Beach. PWS staff arrived at the scene and found 51 whales already dead on the beach and another 45 still alive in shallow water. They estimated that the whales were between four and six meters long and weighed up to three tonnes each. On 26 July 2023, PWS staff made the difficult decision to euthanize the remaining whales to end their suffering. They consulted with veterinarians and experts from Murdoch University and used lethal injections to administer a drug called pentobarbital, which causes respiratory arrest and cardiac failure.[1]